Cutting Tenons

I was just dumping my digital camera getting ready for summer vacation and realised I had some pics of the tenons being sawn for the door project. I’m using my 14″ Rip saw and my 12″ carcass both by Lie Nielsen. Here is some of the progress.

To begin a nice deep scribe line with my favourite marking gauge establishes the tenons width; in this case they’re all 5/8″ thick, 3″ deep and the rails being cut here are just under 7″ wide. The Quarter Sawn White Oak is hard and unforgiving so make sure you have sharp tools when working this kind of wood. I’ll go back and forth over the pieces to get these lines as deep as the small cutter on the gauge will allow. The base lines are all established with my engineers square off of one reference edge and then one reference surface.

I begin each cut with a small kerf at the far side of the piece and then slowly establish the straight line across the piece using the back heel of my saw plate. I can bear down and get a nice deep kerf established with this method of using the heel of the saw where the teeth remain the sharpest. Once the kerf is adequate I begin the sawing; I saw down until my back saw just about bottoms out and then I’ll rotate the work piece in my tail vise and continue on from this opposite side.

You’ll notice in the video below I’ll use my Ryoba to finish off the cut to the required depth. From here I get out my miter hook and another bench hook to support the Oak and cross cut to the shoulder line. Again I’ll slowly begin the kerf using the heel of my saw plate and work my way down into the cut. Finish sawing with the work piece back in the tail vise and the Japanese pull saw to complete.

I’ll do all of the rails and moulions for the entire door before I mark the pieces to saw the haunches in the tenons. In the shot above you can see the first haunches are cut in the small moulion. It’s one slow step at a time in the Unplugged Woodshop. Enjoy the process and try to split these lay out lines. The video below will show the procedure…as always, I was spinning some vinyl…Neil Young’s, ‘After the Gold Rush’ one of his best and still one of my favourites. To get a good idea of the time line to complete this one cut you may notice by the end of the job the record needed to be turned over! Ahh the joys of vinyl. Cheers!

As always, you’ll have to jump over to my other blog site to view the video.

www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com

What Lies Within?

I just finished up another project for my book and wanted to share a bit of the details. The piece is a simple enough form, 2″ square legs with a kind of post and panel design for the sides. One door and six drawers make a total of 32 sticks to build the frame. Sounds straight forward enough right.? What lies within? A simple form like this can be quite deceiving to the untrained eye; here’s how. The 32 frame components require 128 joints; nothing crazy but a simple mortise and tenon sharing the width with a bridal joint…so far so good but if you stop to consider that each one of these joints requires up to 12 separate saw cuts, some chiseling and fine fitting that brings us to a neighborhood of 1536 scribe lines! Not so much the simple cabinet it appeared to be after all?
The hardest part for me when building a piece like this is keeping the pieces labeled and orientated properly. This is probably the most challenging piece from my book but for the reader and home woodworker who builds they’re own, I can promise you this; by the time it’s complete you’ll be a whole lot closer in perfecting your lay out, marking and sawing techniques!
Cheers.

~ Upbeat, with feel ~

“It’s a Big Feed of Lobster…”

A quick note now to demonstrate the evolution of the Lobster tail into the so-called Butterfly or Dovetail….follow me?
Start of after you’ve cut out your butterflies by squaring up the ends. I like to run my Smoother over each face and clearly mark on the back side of each key, the orientation of the piece. Up, down, left side or right. As close as I’d like to think these are the same size; they’re not. That’s the beauty of hand crafted furniture. Even if I wanted to make these identical, there would inevitably be small discrepancies in the two. I guess that’s part of their charm.

I start of with beveling or maybe breaking the edge would be a better term. I use a pretty coarse Rasp for this job, it makes quick work and is relatively easy to do. I should correct myself here first; I said start out by…I actually take the butterfly key and start off by sketching the rough shape I’m trying to get to with a pencil. Then, I go to the rasp and start shaping.

From here I move on to my Gouge. This takes a little nerve to do; taking your nice smooth piece of walnut, with it’s freshly shaped edges, then start gouging out pieces of the wood in an attempt to create a pleasing shape? Take a deep breathe and go for it! What’s the worse that can happen? You’d have a bit of filing or sanding to do later or worst case scenario, you have to make a new key. Really, it’s only 8″ square of 1/2″ walnut from the scrap wood pile…get over it.

The Lobster Emerges….
So I realise this is a butter fly key; a throw back to a time when civilization was different, craftsmen were different. A time before the face paced life style we live and breath today. The butterfly key was used as a decorative way to structurally and mechanically connect two pieces of wood in a shared form of joinery. So what did I do? I made a lobster!
Great. Hey, this is Cape Breton Island, isn’t it?
Seriously, the lobster will be slowly smoothed over and washed away to the point where a passing hand will only detect the subtle reminder of it’s curves and shapes. Will it ever know I started out with a lobster shape? Well, I suppose it will now!

From here I have no choice but to start with a bit of 220 sand paper, slowly rubbing and shaping; manipulating and easing the harsher, more determined shapes left behind by the Gouge. I blend in the tiny hills and valleys until a pleasing form comes forth. When I close my eyes and feel the piece in my grip I know it’s complete. A nice coat of Oil and it’s ready to fly.
Enjoy.

Inlaid Walnut Butterflies

Now that the headboard is complete other than I have to still apply a finish; I move on to the inlaid butterfly keys at the bottom of the bed. These will be both structural and visual in design. I’ll start off by making a full size template out of some scrap press board and try it in place. Stand back and have a look; try the other side, walk around…cover all of the angles until you’re happy with the size and the placement of the key template. I’ll then take a fine file and go over all of the edges of my template making sure it’s nice and smooth, while checking it’s flat on edge. This is exactly what you want the finished pieces to be so make sure all is well with it. Seeing as they’re only two of these and they’re only a few inches worth of material, take your time and find a really nice piece. The small length of Walnut I have was taken out of my scrap wood pile. A great place to use up those awkward little pieces left over from an earlier stage of the project. I’ll take some two sided tape and temporarily stick the template down to the walnut, making sure you’ve gone over the face of the real wood with a smoothing plane. This piece of wood should be at a finished state before sticking on the butterfly mock-up. Once adhered I carefully cut around the template with my marking knife being careful to keep the flat back side of the knife blade tight against the press board cut-out.
Once I have the shape nicely traced out on the Walnut, I’ll cross cut the key on my Bench. My Mitre Hook is the perfect appliance to use here. This will ensure the Walnut stays put while I saw it out. I’ll get as close as I can to each end keeping in mind I’ll be fine tuning it later. Once I get the pieces cross cut I’ll take them over to my shoulder vise and get ready to rip down the sides of the butter fly wings. This will be done with a rip saw as opposed to the small Carcass saw I used to cross cut the keys.
My fine toothed Dovetail saw has a Rip tooth pattern filed at 15 tpi. (teeth per inch) I recently resharpened it so it makes quick work of the walnut. Next, I’ll take the freshly cut butterflies and mount them again in the shoulder vise but on an axis so they’re just a hair proud of the bench top. I was going to use my chisel to clean up any saw marks left behind but decided to use a spare blade I have out of my Jointing plane. I use a Bevel-Up Jointing Plane manufactured by Veritas® which has a nice thick blade, 2-1/4″ wide, 3/16″ (0.187″) thick. This ended up being the perfect tool for this application. The wide heavy back of the Iron was easy to register against the narrow edge of the butterfly key; a few passes with the Iron and all of the saw marks were gone.
Now that the keys are cut out and finished it’s time to inlay them into the lower bed rails where they meet the walnut foot board. The first step again with this process is to carefully attach some two sided tape to the keyes and carefully place them onto the scribed lines from earlier. Make sure all is right in the butter fly kingdom before going any further. This is one spot you don’t want to try to patch later! I’ll carefully remove the key and with a freshly sharpened and well honed chisel, slowly cut a shallow groove around the inner perimeter being careful not to disturb the outside edge. When I have the groove cut the full way around I’ll take a 1/4″ (6mm) Gouge and cut a narrow groove down the center of the mortise key. This hollow will allow me to get started with my Router plane enabling the blade of the Router to get into the fibers and slowly cut out the waste. I make sure to take light shallow passes and slowly work my way down checking my depth as i go. When I reach the mortise bottom I’ll take a small detail chisel and clean up through out. At this point I like to clean up the surface around the mortise with my smoothing plane and test fit the butterfly. When it sits down properly I’ll scribe around the edge of the key and again remove it. I made sure to keep my mortise a little shallow so the actual butterfly will be proud by a little. Then carefully remove the key and at my work bench I’ll shape it. I use the edge scribe lines I just made to reference so I don’t chamfer down past the rails surface. I like to really work the butterfly into a pleasing shape constantly stopping, closing my eyes and allowing my fingers to judge my progress. You really have to trust your sense of touch and not so much the eyes for this. If you wanted, you could simply plane the key down flush with the surface; this is the common method but seeing as I wanted this bed to feature some hand cut joinery, I’m allowing the butterfly to round and bulge out of the walnut frame around it. I think my clients will agree. Bon nuit!

Solid Technique makes for Reliable Joint

In my last post I showed the procedure of cutting a half-lap dovetail into the top rail of the headboard. Now I’ll demonstrate how using similar techniques I’ll attach the rail to the top of the headboard for a joint that is strong, easy to make and a reliable connection. To start I’ll disassemble the dry-fit half lap joint and using my marking gauge, mark the center on the width of each up-right. A nice deep cut down each side and across the bottom will give me a clean edge to reference my saw blade to. You can use a Rip saw for this cut, a band saw or even a dado blade set up at the table saw. What ever method you choose, once you have cut off the cheek of each rail, you’ll need to clean up the shoulders and the face. This is a vital part of the joint where it will sit on top of the lower section of the head board. I use a block plane to get rid of any saw marks on the cheek even though once attached you’ll never see it. Better to clean it up now, to ensure the pieces mate together nicely later during the final assembly.I use my medium shoulder plane and if need be, clean up the edges with a freshly sharpened chisel. Check the fit to see that the uprights sit flush to the top and again, dry fit the pieces. I’ll wait until I’m ready for the final finishing stage of the entire bed before attaching these permanently. Instead of any mechanical fasteners I’ll use Walnut dowels and glue to affix this to the top of the head board. With a smoothing plane I usually clean up the faces and set them aside. Next, we’ll install and cut out the butterfly keys for the bottom corners of the bed frame.

Bench-top Jigs make quick work for tight corners

I’ve just started my next project and not too far into it, I find myself having to cut mitres at my bench using hand tools. A quick process that could be a lot harder if it wasn’t for a few simple Bench-top appliances.
The first step as is true with all good joinery is starting with straight stock that’s been hand planed true. Once you’ve prepared your pieces, measure and mark with either a knife or pencil. For this project I’m using walnut which I find difficult to see at the best of times so for certain cuts I actually use both. I make my knife cut and follow with led, think old school prison tattoos…Actually, it helps to add some contrast my eye can more readily detect when sawing accurately on Walnut.
I always make a 90 degree first with pencil across the work piece; it helps to keep things ’square’ when you mark and cut the mitre. I use a Mitre Hook at my Bench top to cut the 45. It’s a quick jig made from 3/4″ MDF; it consists of a base with a hook glued and screwed to the front bottom that rests against the bench top apron and a fence across the back. For the fence I used a thick piece of hard maple I had in my off-cut pile. I marked and cut out the kerfs for my back-saw to follow when in use. One 90, centered with a 45 degree on each side. This stock is a little better than an inch in thickness so I opt to use my larger 12″ Tenon Saw filed cross cut with 13 tpi. I follow my scribe down down through the fibres careful on the exit not to cut into the MDF. That stuff is nasty for saw blades and everything else I can think of save for the jigs around a wood shop.
Once I have my pieces mitred I change over to my shooting board equipped with a mitre fence. The mitre fence is a simple accessory made from another off-cut; this time some 3/4″ Birch plywood I had left over from some un-fulfilling job where I had to use 3/4″ Birch plywood!
Just kidding, plywoods are getting better and better, the quality and overall look and performance; although in my perfect world I think that I’d use solid wood for all of my projects and be able to convince all of my clients to do the same. On the shooting board I true up the mitres being careful not to blow-out the fine pointed ends. When I’m happy with the results I try matching up the pieces flat on the work bench. I use a small piece of masking tape to pull the pieces together. Looks good; a little glue and this one is done.
For larger applications in heavier stock, this method can be awkward do to the fact that planing stock thicker than 1″ can become difficult on the shooting board. Try using a ‘bird-house’ or ‘donkey’s ear’ jig in combination with the shooting board, this allows the plane to travel across the grain on the 45 and not with it. There are quite a few different mitering jigs out there, look around and find one you’ll enjoy using.

Reflection Method of Schwarz

This is just something I stumbled across yesterday and tried it out this morning while cutting the above mitres.
Christopher Schwarz, Editor of Popular and Woodworking magazines was filmed during a talk at Lie-Nielson recently. He shows how to cross cut a perfect 90 using only the reflection of the stock in the side of your saw blade as a guide.
I thought our dear Mr. Schwarz may have been sitting a little too close to the Linseed Oil but hey…voila!
It works; imagine, a perfect 90 cut by eye, my eye, not his of course, that would just be strange…Anyhow, try it if you can’t find a square and you happen to keep a bright shiny saw blade tucked away in yer’ till somewhere.

Check it out:

Simple Joinery makes for Quick and Sturdy Construction

I’m just finishing a major cabinet project and have found some time between finishing coats to build a traditional style Tool Chest. I always had a tool cabinet in my shop as well as a peg board wall for hanging odd size tools but never seemed to be able to find the time to build a proper Tool Chest.
I think I started this train of thought after reading the latest issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine and seeing the great article on Gerstner & Sons. Truly amazing, 100 years. My initial thought was to simply copy the Gerstner style chest of drawers but once I started taking inventory of the “must have” tools I’d be putting in this thing,I quickly realised the chest of drawer design wasn’t going to suit my purpose. What I did like about the Gerstner design is the simple construction methods that clearly could stand the test of time. Dadoes and rabbets, no fancy joinery; reliable and sensible I decided this would suit what I needed and wouldn’t eat up alot of shop time. Having a background in wooden boat building I’ve always loved the old Mariner style Sea-Chests and thought of a way to incorporate the two styles while keeping the Chest relatively light.

The Carcass and Interior

For the top, bottom and two sides I used 4/4 Cherry. I joined the corners with a simple rabbet and dado joint. A stacked Dado on the Table Saw set-up with a wooden sacrificial fence made the job of cutting the joinery here quick and painless. Glue and Cherry dowels will assure this stays put for a long time. The front and back of the chest I made frame and panel style; the frame is again 4/4 Cherry joined with through mortise and tenons while the panels are off cuts of 1/4″ plywood. This is a safe and stable material that will keep things from moving around in future climate changes. I built two drawers into the front bottom and installed sliding panels out of plywood to keep the drawers in place without having to resort to mechanical fasteners. Again on the table saw, a simple dado for the drawer corners keeps everything running smoothly. The drawers are solid Cherry for the front, back and sides while again plywood for the bottoms. The right hand drawer has a false bottom for two levels of storage. This is dedicated to drill bits, knives and chisels leaving the left drawer for lay-out tools. On the inside of the lid I made a custom cleat that holds my full size cross-cut saw, (this actually determined the Chests’ width during the design stages of this project) to hold the end of the saw blade secure during transit, I added a strip of leather. I knew I wanted to leave the majority of the Chest interior open to accommodate larger items but always liked the whole “till” system you see in the old Mariner style Sea-Chests. I secured two cleats at the top inside of the Chest sides, about an inch lower than the lid bottom which enables the tills to hang safely inside. The rear till is slightly wider and deeper than the front to accommodate two back saws as well as some other items. I made some custom dividers and tool holders that actually can be a real mind-bender when you have to put things away. It’s sort of a puzzle in the making when fitting tools into a small space like this. The front till handles some screwdrivers, spokeshaves and hammers. I’ll include a full inventory of the Chest at the end of this article. I used some ‘Flame Birch’ for the tills I had kicking around my shop; it was good and dry as well as an aesthetically pleasing contrast to the Cherry. At this point it came time to make one of the hardest decisions of the entire design; which hand planes to take? Which ones were worthy of coming along to ‘on-site’ locations? I quickly got into the whole “If you could only take ten items to a desert island scenario…” I made myself a plywood template of the Chest bottom and on my Bench I started to arrange my hand planes. Moving them here to there, taking this one away and adding that one; when I finally decided on my plane selection as well as the orientation of the lay-out I traced around each one and using a small jig-saw, cut out the shapes. I then took this perfect template of the lay-out and glued it into the Chest bottom creating a kind of French-Fitted compartment which is much fancier than I originally anticipated. This method also helps to keep items from shifting when moving the Chest around.

Finishing Touches

I used a Piano style hinge across the back to hold the lid with a heavy-duty Bronze closure for the front. I had it left after a boat build I was working on last year and this proved a perfect application for the Naval hardware.(Note: A Ship Supply Store can be a great place to find interesting hardware suitable for all kinds of furniture making as well as being different than the stuff you’ll find in most hardware stores.) The handle on the top is made from 5/4 Walnut. I made it wrap over and around the top to add some extra surface and help keep from pulling off while carrying it. Some glue, walnut dowels as well as some 3″ wood screws driven up from the inside will hopefully take care of any movement in the handle. For the finish I decided to try a homemade method of ‘Ebonising’ the plywood panels. A simple mixture of steel wool in a mason jar covered with household vinegar and left to ‘cook’ for a few days turned the wood a rich Black. I added a second coat when it dried and finished it off by taking a card scraper and lightly scraping the black residue left behind. Over this as well as the entire Chest I rubbed on my now exclusive Oil and Varnish mixture. This really brought out the grain in the Cherry and will provide a strong finish. The Tried and True Oil/Varnish product has become the only finish I use and every time I apply it I like it more and more. This Traditional style Tool Chest was a quick and relatively painless project that will protect my tools for many years to come while keeping me fit everytime I have to move it.
Here are the overall dimensions of the Chest as well as a complete inventory of it’s contents.

Dimensions:
Width: 28 5/8″ Height: 16″ Depth: 9 1/4″

Contents
Right Drawer:
Upper:
Set of 8 Forstner Bits, 1/4″ to 5/8″
Set of 12 HSS Lipped Brad-Point Drill Bits, 5/64″ to 1/4″
2 Paul Beebe carving Knives #8 and #12
Small block of Paraffin Wax to lubricate hand planes
Lower:
2 Lie-Nielson Mortise Chisels, 1/4″ and 3/8″
2 Japanese Dovetail Chisels, 1/4″ and 3/8″
1 Hand Counter Sink
Small Jewelers Style Drill with Bits
Stanley Scratch Awl
Hinge Centre Finding Punch
2 Lie-Nielson Gunsmith’s style Screwdrivers

Left Drawer:
Sheffield made Rosewood Mortise/Marking Gauge
Sheffield made 3″ Try/Miter Square
8″ Steel Engineers Square
12″ Combination Square
2 sets of Dividers, 4″ and 8″
Dovetail Marker
6′ Folding Rule
3″ and 8″ Sliding Bevel Gauge
10′ Cabinetmakers Measuring Tape
Tite Mark III Marking Gauge
Brass Compass with pencil
6″ Dial Calipers

Front Till:
10-1/2 oz Warrington Pattern Hammer
Veritas® 1-1/4 lb Journeyman’s Brass Mallet
Veritas® Beading Tool with assorted Cutters
Veritas® Flat and Round Spokeshaves
4 Wooden Handled Screwdrivers
Assorted Card Scrapers with small Burnisher

Rear Till:
Lie-Nielson 15 tpi Dovetail Saw
Lie-Nielson 14 tpi Carcass Saw
Fret Saw
Lie-Nielson Side Rabbet Planes #98/99
James Krenov custom made Smoothing plane
Wood and Brass adjustable plane Hammer
Veritas® Detail Chisels, set of 5
Very old German made GENKO hand drill
24″ Steel Centre-Finding Rule

Under Lid:
10 tpi Panel Saw

Interior Compartment:
Lee Valley Scrub plane
Lee Valley Small Router Plane
Lee Valley Plough Plane plus additional blades
Lie-Nielson #4 Bronze Smoothing Plane
Lie-Nielson # 5 1/2 Bench Plane
Lie-Nielson Skew Block Plane
Lie-Nielson Medium Shoulder Plane
Lie-Nielson Bronze Low-Angle Block Plane
Stanley #90 Rabbet Plane
1 set of custom made Mahogany and Brass Winding sticks

Amazing what you can squeeze into a relatively small footprint isn’t it?
While I was finishing up this project I glanced out my rear shop window to see this friendly visitor helping himself to the fresh buds starting to grow on the trees. If you look closely at this picture, through the window just past the utility trailer you can spot the Moose…Bon Appétit!

Classic Joinery Highlights this Modern Kitchen Aid

This Arts and Crafts Style kitchen I’m building has a lot of great design features. One small detail is in the interior of the door cabinets. Instead of having a shelf which you have to bend down and reach into to access the interior, this design acts like a drawer and pulls out as well as adding to the over-all appeal of the cabinets. I shaped the shelf fronts so you can easily grab hold eliminating the need for any kind of after market drawer pulls. The box is built in the traditional style using through dovetails on the front and rear. It’s made out of solid Cherry and will be finished with a hand rubbed oil suitable for kitchen use. I go through the dovetailing process in an earlier blog, so once I have the basic box complete, I shape the front.

Cutting the Sweep

A gentle curve compliments the lines of the cabinets and I simply draw in the desired shape with a pencil. If you have a few of these to do, make a template off of this first one for continuity among the others. To simplify the cutting out process I take a Forster style drill bit and on my Drill press I drill out the two bottom corners of the sweep.Once the two corners are cut out I clamp the face in my shoulder vise and using my Tenon Saw I cut down the two outside angles. I follow with a Fret saw and cut across the bottom, carefully following the pencil line. I leave about 1/8″ of material that will be removed later.

Spokeshave

Now that the main area has been rough cut out, I bring things a little closer using a Spokeshave. I use Canadian made VERITAS Spokeshaves, the three models they manufacture are flat, round and concave; each being designed for smooth, effective, chatterfree shaping of panel edges, paddles, tool handles, and all freehand work. The flat and round bottom spokeshaves are the general workhorses in my workshop. These are the tools you will pick up for practically every kind of woodworking activity. The round shave has a 1-3/4″ radius. After shaping the drawer front with the spokeshave I fine tune the inside curves with a cabinet scraper. These are great tools for a wood shop, simple yet effective for smoothing difficult grain patterns, rounding over sharp edges or any other shaping you may do.

Assemble and Finish

Once the front is shaped I assemble the Shelf Trays using the method I described in the Dovetailing a Drawer Blog. Once the boxes are glued up I install the 1/4″ Cherry bottoms. These are strong trays designed for generations of use as well as adding a nice touch to this kitchen; when you open up the lower doors, instead of seeing a couple of crowded shelves, you’re able to pull-out a custom build tray enabling full access to the bottom and back spaces within.

Before you reach for that dovetail saw there are a few tools that you should think about first. These can make laying out dovetails a whole lot easier in the construction of traditional style drawers. Let’s take a look at some of them.

The very first step when building drawers once you have your stock all milled square, planed and ready to go is to determine where your drawer bottom will go. Instead of taking a pencil and drawing in a line I take my Small Plough Plane by VERITAS and actually cut a shallow groove into the bottom inside pieces I’m using.
This leaves no question as to where my drawer bottom goes and eliminates some room for error. Now that I have my drawer bottom marked in I can take my marking gauge and scribe in the material thickness’. This gets me a little closer to a perfect layout. I use the Tite-Mark Marking Gauge which is unique in having a micrometer adjustment system. Once I scribe the material thickness’ I reach for my Skew Block Plane. I use the Lie-Nielson version which is derived from the Stanley 140 making this next step the famous “140 Trick” I set up the plane to take a shallow cut across the end of my pieces following the depth of the scribe line I had just made with my Marking Gauge. This only takes two or three light passes and establishes a tiny shoulder that will help in my lay-out to cutting perfect dovetails. Once this small shoulder is cut I get my dividers and lay out my dovetails on the drawer side pieces. Cris Gochnour recently wrote a great article in Fine Woodworking about this technique. Now once we finally have our dovetails laid out we can reach for our Dovetail Saw and start cutting. When it comes time to transfer our tails over to the pins that tiny shoulder we cut into the drawer sides will hold our front and back pieces right where we need them. No chance for mistakes by eyeing things down through the tails. So next time you want to make traditional style drawers and reach for a dovetail saw, first think about a few other tools that will make this process more enjoyable and achieve far better results.